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Wednesday March 11, 2009
The Cave Dwelllers
From the very tail end of 2004 into early 2005, I spent several days working on a semi-science fiction drama thriller-of-sorts titled
The Immigrants,
written and directed by
Glenn Thomas
for his LA Film School project
(a clip from which is on my
demo reel,
at the point when I lock up my female costar and ominously threaten her son William),
Thanks to working on The Immigrants,
I also got cast to play a mad scientist in the independent short subject
The Champ
(the black and white clip on my demo reel; though its report data for The Champ was lost, the above link goes to the short's trailer at the
film's official site).
Glenn emailed me, offering me a role in a comedy short he had written: The Invention of Coffee,
set in Neanderthal times, despite the dialogue
(and an event or two),
being deliberately and comically anachronistic.
I read it through and enjoyed it's quirkiness, and replied indicating I most certainly accepted the role of Larry, the best friend, which as I read it seemed obviously written for me.
Glenn emailed with the awkward news he had considered me to play the tribal chief.
Oops.
When I read things, whether it be books or scripts, I always "cast it" to keep track of which characters are who.
I replied that as I had read it, I had seriously thought the chief role had been written for
David Schroeder,
considering Glenn had cast David in another LA Film School project he had done.
David and I had worked together on one a project or two, such as the AFI short
Santa Croce.
Glenn realized that that would be a good bit of casting; so based on resulst he contacted David who must have accepted, as in future Glenn emails about the project, I noted David's email CC'd...
Some weeks later Glenn sent along a "slightly revised" script, at the moment my printer decided to stop functioning.
Then Glenn reported that the budget had come through and it appeared The Invention of Coffee was a go.
He scheduled a table read for Sunday March 22nd at his place in the Valley, and conveyed the project would be a seven day shoot: Sunday June 21st to Sunday June 28th, with Thursday June 25th as a day off.
Yikes, I thought.
On the one hand it was a good thing my temp day-job had been okay with my doing shoots and such, and
(considering this project would be
[food],
Copy and Credit)
it was a good thing my residuals for my
national commercial
should still be coming in at that time.
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Sunday March 22, 2009
Schedule shift
Originally this was the date for our mid-afternoon table read at Glenn's Woodland Hills home.
Glenn had emailed us to confirm who was available, at one point indicating a possible date shift, but if an email came with it, it either got lost or somehow uncharacteristically was overlooked.
As it was I was awakened around 5am by torrential rain.
I emailed Glenn to inquire if anyone in the cast and crew attending the table read lived close enough to me that a car pool could be arranged, considering if the rains continued, by the time I reached his place I'd be drenched to the skin.
In his reply he notified me read had been rescheduled for the following Sunday.
While this date change freed up my day to an extent, not surprisingly the rain ceased by 6am as it was, leaving the day crisp and brightly clear until the late afternoon when there was strange, dreary cloud cover, but no further rain.
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Sunday March 29, 2009
"Table" read
Not entirely sure how this happened, but I headed to begin my trek to Ventura Boulevard and Topanga Canyon a full hour early.
Originally I would have arrived around 2:50pm'ish for the 3pm, but found myself at Universal at 12:55pm, not 1:55pm.
I figured there would be a place to eat or buy snack and on arrival to my delight there's a Fatburger right there.
The MTA "map" as to distance from my bus stop and to Glenn's apartment building implied a bit of a hike, but it was much closer
(literally just around the corner).
I met his producer
Cara Brown
of
Carabou Productions,
and
the leads.
Puzzlingly, David Schroeder was a no-show
(Glenn drove me home afterwards and David got ahold of him then, but Glenn didn't related what'd happened).
We sat in the main living room, on the sofa, so we really didn't have a Table Read per se; plus it was just those who've been cast, not the Entire Scripted Cast.
So we only read a few selected scenes a couple of times.
Glenn would have us read a scene, then he'd film us running through it the second time... never know if it can be a DVD Extra or so.
So far, as far as cast was concerned, We Were It.
The others departed; Glenn had offered to drive me home, and once alone, we figured when it gets closer to Actual Casting of the other roles, I could suggest recommend some of my better and reliable acting friends.
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